Dr. Eliza Zhunusova - new staff member

Dr. Eliza Zhunusova joined the Thünen Institute as a Research Scientist on Ensuring Rural Livelihoods through Sustainable Forest Use in the Tropics.

Dr. Zhunusova holds a M.Sc. degree in Food and Resource Economics and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics. In her doctoral thesis, she focused on the effects of economic policies, macroeconomic conditions and international migration on agricultural development in the Kyrgyz Republic.

During her Ph.D studies, Dr. Zhunusova has worked for an interdisciplinary research project „Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Human Welfare in Central Asia (LUCA)“ coordinated by the Center for international Development and Environmental Research, JLU Giessen. Her final dissertation during M.Sc. studies at the University of Bonn was part of the interdisciplinary research project „Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation in Social-Ecological Systems of East- and South Africa’s Savannahs“.

As part of the Forestry Worldwide working group, Dr. Zhunusova will focus on socio-economic aspects of research related sustainable forest management in the tropics, specifically in Vietnam, Philippines, Ecuador and Zambia.

Her main research area of interest is on understanding the interrelationship between rural livelihoods and the use of natural resources using analytical techniques from environmental-, development-, and institutional economics.